How Aaron Judge’s comments went over with Yankees brass -- and why he was empowered to offer them

Speaking after a loss that left the Yankees eliminated from postseason contention on Sunday, Aaron Judge sounded more like a general manager than a right fielder -- and more willing to discuss baseball operations than most star players in the league.

But if Judge’s comments sounded strikingly forward, they made sense within the context of the way the franchise has consulted him since re-signing him as a free agent this year, and the way that Judge has grown as a leader and spokesman.

“I got some ideas,” Judge said Sunday. “But it’s gonna take all of us. It’s going to be talking with everyone in the organization, all the way down through the minor league stuff, all the way up to the top. There’s a lot of stuff we gotta work on and improve, but there’s a lot of bright spots that we’ve seen with these young guys coming up. This is the time to build on that and start building that next foundation.”

The next morning, Yankees higher-ups said that they didn’t mind the comments, even if they were more detailed, even pointed, than typical player quotes about an organization. Two team officials noted that reporters asked Judge the questions, and that Judge had to come up with something.

Judge also said: “There was talks of stuff getting shut down, but I gotta be out there. A leader on this team, especially with these young guys we got coming up, you gotta show them that you gotta post even if you’re not feeling good, not feeling great. You gotta be out there every single day for your teammates.

One of the team officials speculated that Judge was making sure teammates knew that he expected them to play when not 100 percent healthy, as he himself has since returning from a June toe injury. Perhaps not every Yankee has been as willing as Judge to push through aches and pains?

Judge was not in the clubhouse on Monday during pre- or postgame media availability. But a team source who knows the captain very well pushed back on the idea that Judge was calling out other players.

“But that is very important to him,” the source said -- meaning that Judge says behind the scenes that he places a high value on modeling for the team’s rookies that it’s important to post up as often as possible.

Sunday’s comments were a fitting conclusion to a year in which Judge has emerged as a strong and confident public voice. Almost always pleasant and accessible, the younger Judge often seemed like an heir to the Derek Jeter tradition of less-is-more when it came to offering opinions.

A notable exception came in 2020, when Judge called out the Houston Astros for their cheating in 2017-19. “You didn’t earn it,” he said then. But since Judge returned to the Yankees last December on a nine-year, $360 million contract and became captain, he has spoken freely far more often.

In spring training, when Anthony Volpe was trying to make the team as a rookie shortstop, Judge said, “My thing has always been, if you’re the best player, it shouldn’t matter your age. You should be up helping the New York Yankees. It doesn’t matter if you’re 19 or 41. If you’re the best guy for the job, you should be playing.”

Earlier this month, when I asked Judge if he wanted to speak on the record about manager Aaron Boone’s future, Judge could easily have said, “I like Boonie, but that’s a question for the front office. It’s not my decision.” That’s probably what Jeter would have done.

But Judge instead said that yes, he did want to talk -- and he wanted Boone back next year. For good measure, he decided to publicly lobby the Yankees to bring back new hitting coach Sean Casey, too.

Judge’s public engagement on organizational issues derives from private conversations with the team’s top leadership -- that is the context for his newfound openness in this area.

This season owner Hal Steinbrenner began meeting with Judge and Gerrit Cole to gain insight about the team from the clubhouse level. A source said on Monday that those meetings continued at a rate roughly once per month through the season, totaling about six.

Steinbrenner typically gathered the two players in Boone’s office with Boone and GM Brian Cashman. He also maintained a dialogue with Judge and Cole more casually when he ran into them elsewhere in the clubhouse.

Judge and Cole are not the first players to engage in an open dialogue with the front office; reliever Zack Britton, for example, used to provide valuable insight to Cashman and assistant GM Jean Afterman on how the team could better communicate about and implement analytics.

But Judge is an icon, the Yankee captain. Clearly, his status in the clubhouse, where his inclusive style of leadership has earned him universal respect, is transferable to the front office.

With the Yankees now trying to learn from a season that Cashman called a “disaster,” Judge will have a voice on how to move forward.